Illinois Central 3345

About a month and a half ago I took a big step towards finishing the exterior of the IC 3345 coach. The end buffers were not installed when we painted the coach last year. Wanting to finally finish that part of the project I went into the storage field and found both of them. With the help from Jeff, from the steam department and operating the large fork lift, we moved them from the storage field to an area next to barn 10. This happened in the early spring of this year. This September I personally hired a contractor to abrade the exterior of both buffers. Kane DeKalb Dustless Blasting is the name of the contractor. The process involves using water as the medium mixed with in this case with fine particles of ground up glass to remove the old paint and rust. I would highly recommend its use on other projects around the museum for it worked very well. Anyway, they were prepped, blasted and primed on a Saturday and then top coated with two coats, of Sherwin Williams urethane paint on Sunday, September 22 of this year.

Before the contracting work has begun.

Kane DeKalb contractors . Photo

I just finished priming both buffers.

Another view.

Sunday was another beautiful fall day for painting. This is the finish coat. What a difference sandblasting and painting will do for any piece. Painting makes anything look good. The next step is to finally install each buffer onto the coach and then finally move it into barn 3 for display. If you would like to help defray the cost of the removal please send your donation and mark it for the IC3345 fund. Thanks, Roger!